Sargasso-Mysteriet
Sargasso-Mysteriet was the first in a series of graphic novels first published in Swedish by the Stockholm based publisher Semic from 1977 onwards with text and artwork by Björn Karlstrom. Sargasso-Mysteriet was translated by Peter James and published in the UK by Hodder and Stoughton as Biggles and the Sargasso Triangle in 1978. Translations of the book exist in Dutch and various Scandanavian languages. Synopsis Ships and aircraft have been disappearing in the Sargasso Triangle. Biggles (apparently not in the Air Police yet) is busy with a filming project and not inclined to get involved until he learns that Bertie is among the missing aircrew. Plot (Click on expand to read) Ships and aircraft are disappearing over the Atlantic Ocean. Over in London, Air Commodore Raymond (he is styled General Raymond in this book) tells is staff that he needs them to find Biggles immediately. So urgent is the instruction that a misunderstanding causes Biggles to be locked up at a local police station to be held until Scotland Yard arrives for him! Raymond visits Biggles in the lock up and shows him the report of the disappearances. Biggles is not inclined to get involved: he is busy making a film about World War 1 air combat. However Raymond tells him that among the missing is his friend Bertie, who went missing in his cargo aircraft enroute from Dakar to Miami. Biggles summons Algy and Ginger and he starts fitting out his DC-3 (the camera ship of his film making venture) and a Supermarine Sea Otter. Tug Carrington is roped in as a fourth pilot and they set off under the cover that they are scouting film locations for a film about pioneer aviators who crossed the Atlantic. They set up a base on an uninhabited island near Bermuda. While there, Tug receives a report of yet another aircraft disappearance. They study the pattern of diappearances and find that they are always five days apart. So five days later, Biggles and Algy takes off in the DC-3 to patrol the area where the ships and aircraft had vanished. The engines of the DC-3 suddenly stop and the radio ceases to work. Biggles and Algy spot a submersible structure which has just popped onto the surface on the ocean. Biggles is ready for this and activates PLan B--Algy films the structure and drops the camera overboard. Biggles then ditches the aircraft near the structure. Back at the base Ginger and Tug pick up the automatic emergency signal from Biggles' DC-3 and they go out in the Sea Otter to investigate. Algy's camera sends out a balloon and floats to the surface. Ginger and Tug spot its smoke marker and the camera is retrieved. Meanwhile, Biggles and Algy have been taken prisoner and brought onboard the structure which now descends and anchors itself on the seabed. Our friends are taken to meet Mr Mark Sunday. He tells them he is drilling for oil using an undersee drilling tower which he has constructed. In five days, the supply boat will take them to his headquarters on an island and there they must stay for a month or two until his drilling operations are complete. On their way to their lock up, BIggles and Algy met Babe Sunday, Mark's daughter. Ginger and Tug watch the film Algy has shot and see a view of the submersible structure. Ginger believes Biggles and Algy must have been taken onboard, and that the structure must be in the vicinity of where they picked the camera up. So Ginger and Tug fly out and drop a listening device in that same area in order to make contact with Biggles. Inside their lock up, Biggles knows that they are being bugged so he says things for Sunday's benefit. He suggests to Algy that he might be willing to invest the millions that they have for the film project into Sunday's operation--that would get them rich very fast, no matter that it would involve them in all sorts of illegal operations. As expected, Sunday listens to the tape of their conversation and gets interested. However he is interrupted by his daughter Bebe, who asks what he is listening to. He tells her that it is just a radio play but she doesn't believe it. She gets even more suspicious when she wants to meet the "guests" but Sam, one of Sunday's men, tell her that her father won't allow it. Sunday sends for Biggles and tells him he has heard Biggles has money to invest and he wants to talk business. Biggles plays along and Sunday shows Biggles a laser cannon which he has developed. It can disable the electronics of aircraft and ships. This will allow him to get rich as he can control the traffic of the world--all will have to pay him a tax to move. In the meantime he is drilling for oil to earn enough money to build more such laser cannon stations around the oceans of the world. Biggles has heard enough so he knocks Sunday out and sabotages the cannon. He then tries to escape but is recaptured by Krug, another of Sunday's men, who throws him back into the lockup with Algy. Krug now gets a call telling him that Sunday's base has reported that Biggles and Algy might be British intelligence agents. Bebe is nearby and overhears this. She had earlier seen Biggles being led around by Krug, treated more like a prisoner than a guest. She goes to the lockup and releases Biggles and Algy and takes them to a hiding place. She then asks them why they are here: what has her father done? Biggles tells her the truth about her father, and it is something she had always suspected. She decides to help Biggles: she tells him to open a sluice gate to flood the structure. That would force it to the surface as her father was terrified of drowning. Meanwhile, Sunday is found by his men. He learns that the tower is flooding and orders it to the surface. Then his radar picks up an aircraft: it's Ginger and Tug. They have been monitoring and know Biggles is in trouble and have come to help. Sunday orders his laser cannon to fire at the Sea Otter but Biggles had sabotaged the weapon and it explodes, setting the tower ablaze. Sunday's men abandon the structure and are taken prisoner by a flight of Seahwaks sent out by an American carrier. Biggles, Algy and Bebe climb out of the tower just in time to see Sunday escape the tower in a flying submersible craft. They are picked up by Ginger and flown to the carrier, U.S.S. Trident. Captain Scott welcomes Biggles onboard. He had served in the South China Sea during WW2 and had heard about Biggles' exploits in Borneo. He tells Biggles he has orders to assist as much as possible. Biggles asks him to steam towards Bermuda and await further instructions. Our friends then take off in search of Sunday's supply boat Misty which has picked up Sunday from his submersible flying craft. They soon spot the boat heading towards an island in the Bermuda chain. The island has a headland not shown on the map. Studying it in his binoculars, Biggles discovers that it is actually the captured ships under a camouflage net. He lands near the island and he and Ginger set off to explore the ships in a rubber boat. They creep on board a ship, overpower the guards and release Bertie and the other prisoners. At his base, Sunday learns what has happened and sends the cannon-armed Misty out to prevent the ex-prisoners from sailing away with their ships. Biggles calls to Algy and Captain Scott for help. Algy and Tug attack the Misty with the Sea Otter and sink it with machine gun fire but the aircraft is itself damaged and forced to land. Meanwhile the U.S.S. Trident sends out a flight of Seahawks with marines. Sunday and his men attempt to storm the ships. Biggles and the ex-prisoners have few weapons so they beat back the boarders with fire axes and fire hoses. Sunday now tells Biggles that dynamite has been planted all over the ships and he will detonate the charges by remote control unless Biggles surrenders. Biggles has no choice but now Bebe intervenes. She has crept near to her father's location and grabs a grenade, threatening to throw it into a nearby box of explosives unless Sunday gives in. Sunday is distracted and delayed by Bebe, allowing the marines from the aircraft carrier to land and capture him and all his men. Biggles persuades Bebe to come with them to England where he introduces her to Raymond. He later tells the others that he is thinking of employing Bebe as their secretary. Characters *Biggles *Algy Lacey *Ginger Hebblethwaite *Bertie Lissie *Tug Carrington *Air Commodore Raymond - he is styled Air Marshal Raymond here *Peters *Mark Sunday *Bebe Sunday *Krug *Sam *Jiggs *Luke *Captain Scott Aircraft *Bertie's executive jet - closest match is a Gulfstream II but there are differences in the wing planform, the shape of the nose and the placement of the engines. *BAC Nimrod - fictional version with a circular radome *Lockheed P-3 Orion - a variant with an AEW radome (says P-3E on the tail, but there is no such radome in reality on a P-3E) and a regular ASW type (say P-3C on its tail). *Lockheed E-2C Hawkeye - based on U.S.S. America *Sopwith Camel *Albatros D.III *Scottish Aviation Bulldog *Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk *Supermarine Sea Otter *Douglas DC-3 Ships *''Sea Queen'' *''U.S.S. Trident'' *''U.S.S. Winchester'' *''Misty'' Places Research notes *Captain Scott mentions that he has heard much about Biggles' exploits in Borneo in 1942, events which are described in Biggles in Borneo. *Although the title of the English translation is quite clearly Biggles and the Sargasso Triangle, the cover of the book gives the title as Biggles and the Saragasso Triangle. Incongruities Editions References Category:Derivative works